The Lions: Worthy African finalists

Amid all the talk over the weekend around the finals format, and particularly how the 2016 format gives the South African teams a rails run, one little detail was consistently overlooked.

The Lions will earn a playoffs spot on pure performance, not charity. And further, they will take some beating.

Second on the Super Rugby table heading into the recess – and second however you want to frame it; outright, or by conference format – the Lions have one hand on the Africa 2 conference title already. They can wrap that up properly with a win over the Sharks in Round 15 when the competition resumes.

Their super-impressive thumping of the Bulls was notable for two reasons.

Firstly, it broke the duck of the Lions’ franchise at the Bulls’ Loftus Versfeld home fortress. Though the Cats beat the Bulls in Pretoria several times in the first few seasons of the original Super 12 competition, the Lions as a franchise had never won in the Capital. The closest they had been was a two-point loss in Round 12 last season.

Secondly, with the Chiefs losing in something of an upset to the Waratahs of Friday night, and without so much as a bonus point, the Lions’ seven-tries-to-three demolition of the fairly pedestrian Bulls pushed them ahead of the men from the Waikato by 30 differential points.

The Lions genuinely have the second-best record in the competition, now, and they trail the Crusaders by less than a win. Their record sits very comparably with both the Crusaders and the Chiefs, too.

Importantly, they also have a six-point gap over the third-placed Stormers as the Africa 1 conference leaders, with the Brumbies a further two points behind atop the Australian conference.

After the Sharks, the Lions will host the Kings before heading to Argentina to take on the Jaguares, who may or may not have enough non-suspended players to field a team by then.

As long as they keep winning, the Lions will hold onto second place overall, which not only gives them the home advantage for the Quarter Final, it also puts them in the box seat to host a semi at Ellis Park, should they win through in the first week.

On their effort at Loftus, this is beginning to look very, very probable.

You might recall late last week I was rather nervous about the Bulls-Lions tip, and I have to admit that most of the angst was self-inflicted.

Had I just read the team announcement email from the Lions when it came through on Thursday, I’d have seen that coach Johan Ackermann solved his lack-of-Elton Jantjies problem by ending the season-long exile of Marnitz Boshoff. This was the first surprise when the teams flashed up in the very early hours of Sunday morning.

The second surprise was that Marnitz Boshoff was still at the Lions! I honestly thought he’d left last season, though perhaps I was now processing the news from earlier in the season that Boshoff will be joining new Pro12 Champions Connacht as something that had already happened.

Whatever the reason, he wasn’t at Murrayfield beating up on Leinster, he was at Loftus kicking the Bulls out of the game, and maybe, the run to the playoffs.

Ackermann had said in the team announcement reports that he wasn’t expecting Boshoff to play like Jantjies, which was pretty sound thinking. But it was clear the expectations were high.

“Marnitz has played at the highest level, played in finals and so we can’t ask for more in terms of experience. He must just enjoy the moment and know the team will back him and look after him,” Ackermann had said.

“He can handle the pressure and obviously he is a good goal kicker so that is a plus. He brings something different.”

And that something different is poise. Elton Jantjies is a wonderful player, an instinctive player who relies on his speed and his creativity to make things happen. Boshoff is pretty much the complete opposite, but you could easily make the argument that his vision and game management – as much as his tactical and goal kicking – actually make the Lions a stronger team.

Because just as I pondered the other day about the Waratahs without Kurtley Beale, the Lions now know they can’t rely on one brilliant individual.

Their performance across the park was the complete team effort as a result; 15 very good matadors working together, rather than 14 others waiting for the one brilliant matador to deliver the one fatal sword.

The Lions were well in control at 25-8 at the break, but four converted tries in the last 25 minutes was commanding. The Bulls were blow out of the contest early and never let back in.

Boshoff directed the Lions to where they needed to be, and kicked nine from twelve for good measure, but it was the Franco Mosterts and the Faf de Klerks and the Rohan Janse van Rensburgs and Jaco Kriels – among many others – that delivered the spark.

The Lions were already a good team; they were already second on the table coming into Round 14. Now though, they look much more dangerous in that they’re a much more rounded team.

Their forwards are very good set piece exponents; maybe the best scrum in South Africa, and definitely the best backrow. Warren Whiteley is finally getting due recognition, Warwick Tecklenburg is pictured in the dictionary next to ‘underrated’, and well, we all know how good Jaco Kriel is.

The top five try-scorers for the season all come from different clubs. That’s not so surprising. Extend the range out a bit further, and you get an idea of the depth of the Lions’ strike power.

Of the 13 players to have scored six tries or more for the season, three of them are from the Lions. Eight other sides feature on the list, and the Chiefs have two in Damien McKenzie and Seta Tamanivalu.

Lionel Mapoe (9), Courtnall Skosan (7), and Ruan Combrinck (6) have 22 tries between them, but the Lions’ 33 other tries come from 16 different players. They’re sharing the load.

In many ways, it’s a shame that the Lions’ clear threat to the Super Rugby title is being lost among other peripheral discussion. Because here’s a South African side right now who, if the playoffs started tomorrow, would – or should – have just as much claim to the title as any side you’d care to name.

A quarter final and a very possible semi at Ellis Park give them a very real advantage, and so it should. Because it’s completely deserved on their 2016 record and current form.